WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THEM?
Oceans cover about 70% of the Earth. In the oceans there’s about 97% of all water. Life began in the ocean.
HOW MANY OCEANS ARE THERE?
Read, look at the map and write in the names of the oceans. All oceans are connected. Water and animals can move from one ocean to the other.
The Pacific is the largest. It has more islands than other oceans – about 25,000. There are many volcanoes. There’s often very bad weather. The Pacific lies between Asia in the west and America in the east.
The Atlantic lies between America in the west and Africa and Europe in the east. The Bermuda Triangle lies in the Atlantic. Ships have been wrecked1 and planes havecrashed2 there and we don’t know why.
The Indian Ocean lies between Africa in the west, Australia in the east, and Asia in the north. It is the warmest ocean. The waters are rich in oil.
The Arctic Ocean is small and not very deep. It is very cold. It lies in the northern polar areas. Much of the water is covered with ice.
The Southern Ocean lies around Antarctica. It is the newest named ocean. It was created in 2000. It is the youngest ocean, too. Under the ice the water is very cold (-2°C). The waves in some places are the highest in the world.
CAN YOU MATCH THE TEXTS?
1. The deepest place in the oceans is near the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. It’s about 11,000 m deep.
2. The highest tides3 are in the Bay of fundy, Canada.
3. The longest mountain range in the world is over 50,000 km long. It lies in the ocean.
4. The Great Barrier Reef4 off Australia is 2,300 km long and it’s the largest living organism in the world.
5. In one mouthful of sea water there are 1 million bacteria and 10 million viruses
a, People went to the Moon before finding these mountains.
b, Sometimes they are over 16 m high.
c, About 400 species of coral and over 6,000 fish and other animals live there.
d, How many do you “eat” on your holiday?
e, We don’t know much about the deep ocean. We have better maps of Mars than of the ocean. Very strange animals live here.
Jana Chrtianska
VOCABULARY: 1 rekd – stroskotaný/ ztroskotaný; 2 kr∂šd – havarovali; 3 taids – príliv/ příliv; 4 ri:f – útes
Answers: 1e, 2b, 3a, 4c, 5d